Category: Name That Trauma!

This Japanese monster scared the living crap out of me as a kid (late '70s, early '80s) and visions of it still do.

It was a man in a rubber suit, so the monster was bipedal and man-sized. It had a giant eye on its stomach, webbing for ears on its head and claws it used to kill the men who came after it. I can remember it on a ship running around killing people. The movie was in black and white.

I've searched in vain for this demonic apparition for years and no one knows what I'm talking about.

—bdwilcox

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Kinder-treasure senski solved it with EVIL BRAIN FROM OUTER SPACE (a.k.a. ATTACK FROM SPACE)!

Chuckles here in need of help.

I was visiting my grandparents in New Albany, Indiana (a town that is, incidentally, loaded to the gills with creepy lore) when I happened upon a television broadcast that kept me up until dawn. This would have been around 1980. It was a late-night showing on one of the local UHF stations – oh, how I miss them.

I am fairly certain that what I saw was a British horror film, but I might be wrong on that detail. However, I recall clearly that it reeked heavily of ‘70s fashion. The plot involved cannibals – not the kind that ate Michael Rockefeller but instead the kind that would invite their victims in for a game of cards before dispatching them. I remember that the main cannibal was an older woman but at some point she was joined by her daughter. One of the main conflicts involved a man – maybe the father or brother – who tried to cover up the crimes of the woman and her daughter.

The details are fuzzy but the two most traumatizing scenes are fairly clear: In the first, the older woman murders another woman by stabbing her with a flaming, red-hot poker and then starts to eat her. The second is the end of the film – a person (can't recall gender) goes to the cannibals' house and goes up to the attic. There we see the woman and her daughter with the body of one of their victims – possibly getting ready to chow down. In the final moments, the mother and daughter are closing in with a pitchfork or meat cleaver. The ending was very grim, very bleak – I'm not sure that I had ever seen anything like it before.

I have searched around for 1970s cannibal films but all I can seem to find are references to the more typical cannibal exploitation films – CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, etc. This film could be very obscure – UHF stations were not picky about what they showed on the night shift.

Can my fellow Traumaniacs help me out, or will I be left forever baffled?

UPDATE NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Thanks to kinderpal VicarOfVHS for the assist with FRIGHTMARE.

Hey guys,

I've seen you help with some obscure movies, so I'd love to see if you remember this:

I saw a part of a film when I was very young, in the mid-‘80s maybe, and still to this day I have no idea what it was!

As far as I can remember there was some sort of hero – HE-MAN/BEASTMASTER/CONAN-looking guy, and a writhing captive girl, and they were trapped in a cave or dungeon. And as far as I can remember the bad guy thing holding them captive was a skinless body or a man made out of blood and guts (not unlike the really bloody uncle Frank from HELLRAISER perhaps) and he had like, glowing claws/fingernails – they glowed yellow first, and the captive girl started to sorta writhe in pain, then they glowed blue – and he sort of ripped the girls guts out… I think maybe like telekinetically, straight into his hand.

Now presumably at the point, I ran away from the T.V. terrified, I can't have been older than 5 or 6 so its definitely the ‘80s… I've kinda always thought it was a more adult orientated sorta KRULL BEASTMASTER movie, but, well I thought I'd have seen it again by now.

Any ideas PLEASE?

Cheers,

Gerard

UNK SEZ:: I'll bet you dollars to donuts that you are talkin' bout THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER!!!

Way back when – I think around '77-'79 – I caught an episode of some sci-fi/outer space type show that I have always thought may (or may not) have been SPACE 1999 (which, by the way, has quite possibly the coolest theme song and intro of all time).

I swear to God, I could watch that thing a hundred times in a row.

So anyway – this scene might have been from that or some other space related show – but I was never huge on sci-fi as a youngster – so….? The scene that I remember was this giant spider-like thing had attached itself outside of the door or hatch of this large space ship and when the door opened up the room went all chaotic and the people on the ship got sucked over to the spider thing and when one person got sucked out I think the door shut and when it opened up again the person's body was totally charred black.

I think there was some mention of the sun being involved somehow – so anytime I see a SPACE 1999 episode with the word "sun" in the title I rush around like a fool to watch it – but I haven't found it.

Thanks!

Carol

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to faullguy who knew that this was indeed an episode of SPACE 1999, specifically "Dragons Domain."

First of all I love what you guys are doing and I hope someone out there can help me.

In the early ‘80s, when I was heavily into Marvel and DC, there came a day when my Mom brought me home a fairly large stack of comic books. At first I was excited until I realized they were "religious" comics.

The artwork was actually really good so I started to read them. All the books revolved around two "hip" guys wearing regular, late ‘70s garb like bell-bottoms and unbuttoned shirts; one black guy and one white guy acting as missionaries and running into all sorts of sin, preaching, then moving on.

The only problem is one of these issues involved a group of teenagers going to a concert and trying to buy drugs off of some kid. The kid happened to be a Satanist and before long this group of kids are in the back of a pick-up truck with needles in their arms.

As if that wasn't disturbing enough at the end both of the missionaries start preaching and this ring of hooded Satanists start vomiting and speaking in tongues.

I have been scarred for life by a religious comic book, how f'd up is that?!?

Please somebody tell me the name of the series because I can't remember.

Thanks and rock on,

Cancer

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Extended blessings to Deggsy & Father Merrin for knowing that this mod squad stemmed from Jack Chick's "The Broken Cross."

Here's the description of the movie/T.V. show that has haunted me since I was a kid.

I believe it aired in the '80s or early '90s and I've seen it on French-Canadian television, so it may have been foreign.

Basically, it's the story of a family (I believe it's a mom, a dad and their two kids) and they're going about their usual business in their house*. As it goes on however, the family starts to complain about heat (the temperature inside the house keeps getting hotter) and they can't get out, all the doors and windows are blocked.

At some point also, they discover this huge green mass/monster covering the floor from one of the rooms and it's expanding rapidly. Everyone screams and panics, and that's when you realize that the house* in question is actually a doll's house that's been put in the oven by the naughty brother.

*O.K., so let me explain: It turns out that this kid put her sister's doll house inside the family's oven and left some green candy inside (which melted because of the oven's heat) and at the end you come to understand that you had been following the horrible story of a bunch of dolls trapped inside an oven.

It might sound crazy, but it ain't a dream! I really saw that on T.V.

Tip: Someone once told me it might have been from an episode of THE RAY BRADBURY THEATER, although I've never been able to verify that claim.

Thank you for helping!

André

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Special thanks to the unsinkable Senski who left a comment and Reader Dani K. who emailed us the "Child's Play" episode of the Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense.

Hi again guys, still loving your site, keep up the good work!

I was wondering if you could help me identify what sounds like a classic Kindertrauma scene, not on my behalf but my girlfriend's, who was traumatised by this scene she said she saw in a LAUREL AND HARDY comedy short. It was one of those comedy of errors that they always did, getting themselves into trouble with one of the stock villains.

At the end of this one, however, STAN and OLLIE ended up literally tied into knots, a visual gag I'm sure many found hilarious but which mentally scarred my honeybunny at an early age. I'd love to find it, just to satisfy my own curiosity. Anyone have an idea about it?

Many thanks,

Kahotep

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Thanks to Reader Viktoria for the email assist with LAUREL & HARDY's GOING BYE-BYE!

I must have been between three and five years old when this movie scared me. That would have been sometime between 1966 and 1968, and since the movie was on T.V. then it's probably even older. I can't remember much. There was an old woman, a room filled with dolls and (near what seems to have been the end) a distressed man locked in some sort of room or closet or cell or attic or something. 'Sorry there's so little to work with.

Thanks, btw, for such a great website! A wonderful idea remarkably executed.

-Jeffery M.

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Props to faullguy for getting it with KILL BABY KILL!

Dear Kindertrauma,

When I was a little kid in the mid-'70s, I went to a day care that showed movies when it rained. One time we watched a movie that scared the CRAP out of me and I've always wondered what it was. I think it was a DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE-type movie.

The part I remember was the guy drank this glass of what looked like milk with red dots in it and turned him into a monster. His lab/office was full of all kinds of stuff and I remember a parrot being there. The milky drink for some reason is the most vivid part for me.

Why the day care people thought showing this to little kids was a good idea I don't know! I know after this scene I spent the rest of the movie with my head under a blanket and an older kid trying to calm me down by telling me it was only a movie.

Anyone out there think this sounds familiar? I'd love to know what the hell kind of movie this was!

Thanks and I love the site!

Cate

UPDATE: NAME THAT TRAUMA SOLVED! Thanks to reader EMG for solving it with THE NUTTY PROFESSOR.

When I was a kid, what always terrified me was the occasional horror trailer that would suddenly pop up on a seemingly innocent video rental. I would hide behind the couch whenever one of them came on, but even the sounds were enough to haunt me for weeks. I've since managed to identify most of these trailers, but one particularly traumatizing example remains elusive.

I'm not sure how much of this is due to my own runaway imagination, but I think the film concerned a young couple either moving into a new house or staying at a vacation house at some pastoral location. The beginning of the trailer made the movie appear to be an innocent love story, but halfway through things turned dark. I think a storm brews, and all hell breaks loose — perhaps the house is cursed or there is a cursed object in the house.

The details are fuzzy, but one scene I can recall were giant, monstrous faces peering into the bedroom window of the house. It was as if the entire house was surrounded by them. It might even have been a kind of wall of faces pushing up against the glass. I've searched long and hard for this film, to no avail. I was hoping someone out there would be able to identify it. This would've been the mid-to-late eighties.

Thanks,

Joseph B.

AUNT JOHN SEZ: Joseph, could the freaky faces be from the 1988 AUDREY LINDLEY tour de force SPELLBINDER? Watch out for the windows at the 2:41 mark:

UPDATE: Aunt John was right!